The inhabitants of America's oddest territorial anomaly have had enough. Denied the democratic rights of their compatriots for more than two centuries, they are demanding to be recolonised by Britain - notwithstanding the fact that thousands of them spend their working days running the very government they want to leave.

The 600,000 residents of the District of Columbia - the 176 sq km (68 sq mile) area that is neither a state nor part of a state, with borders exactly contiguous with the city of Washington - have no representation in the Senate, and only a non-voting delegate in the House of Representatives. Yet the lawmakers they do not elect still seem to remember to levy taxes on them every year.

So, with tongues firmly in their cheeks, members of campaigning group DC Vote presented a Declaration of Reunification to the British embassy in Washington yesterday.

"Maybe we can get a better deal as part of the Commonwealth," said Paul Strauss, a DC Vote spokesman. The group had hoped to deliver the document today, Independence Day - "but we're shut", a British embassy spokesman said.

The gesture may be frivolous, but many DC residents do not feel that way about the issue itself. They have only been able to vote in presiden tial elections since 1961, and until the 1970s Congress served as their local government.

Founded on a swamp beside the Potomac river in 1790, the capital's status as an independent district was seen as a vital guarantee of equality among the newly united states by ensuring that no part of the union held territorial sway over the government.

Now, though, protesters say it should be granted statehood or given representation equivalent to that of a state - or be returned to Maryland, the state of which the territory was originally part.

The city elects a shadow delegation of senators - including Mr Strauss - and congresspeople, but only one, DC's long-suffering House delegate, Eleanor Norton, is recognised by Congress. Four US territories have similar non-voting delegates - but their citizens do not pay federal taxes.

The licence plate motto - where vehicles from New Hampshire sport the slogan Live Free Or Die, and those from Maine the word Vacationland - was changed on DC cars two years ago from Celebrate and Discover to Taxation Without Representation.

The British embassy did not plan to give the document to the Queen. "Obviously, if it was something directly connected with Britain and British people we would look at it and make sure it goes to the right place. But it's not," a spokesman said.